Reviewed on Sunday February 19
It’s been a hot minute since sugar-and-spice pop-punk delights Bloods were playing shows with any regularity. Still, if there’s one way to make a comeback, it’s on the grand stage of Taronga Zoo, playing to a largely unfamiliar audience and scoring new fans along the way. Now with a second guitarist filling out their sound, the Sydney band pulls out a tight set that collates early favourites (‘Goodnight’, ‘Into My Arms’), set staples (‘Want It’) and a crowd-pleasing cover (The Romantics’ ‘What I Like About You’, not played by the band for a couple of years) for good measure. There’s new material on offer, too, which hopefully means that a follow-up to 2014’s Work It Out is not far off.
Needless to say, it’s sounding great, matching Bloods’ love of the three Rs (Ramones, Ronettes and Raveonettes) with the skills they have collectively accumulated in the six or so years since their inception. Even with rain looming, it’s impossible to be unhappy with Bloods playing – all you’ve got to do is bring your walls down and get to dancing. Oh, and maybe laugh at a couple of pun-ishingly bad jokes from bassist Victoria ‘Sweetie’ Zamora. Naturally.
Jet are one of the more recent additions to the list of much-hyped reunions, and the anticipation for the band’s arrival is palpable – not least of all because there’s a 20-minute delay on account of the very very frightening thunderbolts and lightning. Thankfully, Jet respond to this urgency by leading with the one-two punch of ‘Last Chance’ and ‘Get What You Need’ from their landmark debut, 2003’s Get Born. From there, it’s a brief history of the band across its three studio albums and half-dozen major singles, with the quartet (joined by keyboardist Louis Macklin and The Wolfgramm Sisters on backing vocals) holding down the fort as if their six-year live absence didn’t leave a single dent in their proverbial armour.
DJs are rolled over. Money gets put where mouths are. Rock’n’roll. Admittedly, the set is at least a couple of songs overlong, and the uncertain pacing means too many mid-tempo tracks are clogged together. Still, when Nic Cester wanders over to pick up a tambourine and ask the question that made him and his brother and their two best mates superstars to begin with, you’re too busy singing obnoxiously loud to sweat the small stuff.
